The present invention relates generally to textile wet processing machines and, more particularly, to such machines for wet processing textile fabrics in continuous cloth rope form.
Textile wet processing machines have long been utilized in the textile industry for piece dyeing of textile fabrics in endless cloth rope form. In machines of this type, e.g., jet dyeing machines, the endless fabric rope is circulated through a processing chamber containing treating liquid, wherein the cloth rope is formed in a plaited plug form. The cloth plug advances through the treating chamber by continuous drawing off of the leading end of the plug and conveyance thereof to the trailing end of the plug, commonly accomplished by means of a fabric lifting reel and a downstream jet of the treating liquid.
A common form of treating chamber utilized in such textile wet processing machines is of a U-shape defined by a pair of laterally-spaced U-shaped side walls joined at their outer edges by a U-shaped transverse wall. The chamber is situated in the bottom of the treating vessel, the side walls typically being perforated to permit flow of the treating liquid therethrough between the interior of the chamber and the bottom liquid containment area of the vessel. It is also common to provide an inner transverse wall between the inner edges of the perforated side walls to maintain the fabric plug at least partially submerged in the treating liquid within the vessel.
Disadvantageously, however, the provision of a treating chamber with an inner wall restricts the chamber to a defined volume which may limit the flexibility of the wet processing machine for treating different types of fabrics. As will be understood, fabrics having different characteristics, e.g., different thicknesses and weight per yard, will behave differently in the wet processing machine and therefore may require a treating chamber of differing volumetric size in order to enable the machine to realize its maximum capacity for treating the individual fabric. However, when the treating chamber has an inner wall, the capacity of the machine for processing thicker and heavier fabrics may be limited thereby. Conversely, the machine may be less than optimally effective for treating lighter weight fabrics for which a treating chamber of relatively small volume would be preferred.